Hall Ranch Open Space‏

A few days ago a friend mentioned cycling at Hall Ranch Open Space. That was what probably gave me the idea to hike there today.

While I had hiked once before at Hall Ranch, it was up the Nighthawk Trail (closed to bikes) from the main trailhead. Today I hiked from the Antelope Drive trailhead to the start of the Button Rock trail. It was just over 7 miles. Almost everyone I saw on the trail was on his or her bike.

My friend was wondering if I could have ridden that trail. I do expect it would have been too difficult for me on the way up. But it was an easy hike today. The weather was perfect. The first short-sleeve hike of the year.
While Hall Ranch generally isn’t has photogenic as the Rockies, I managed to find quite a few photo ops. In fact, I took 83 pictures — of the Rockies, prairie dogs, the first wildflowers of spring, and deer. I never so so many deer in my life. These were my two favorite photos: